Hot Wheels Ferrari 599 GTB Custom

Generally speaking, "modern" Ferraris don't really get my blood pumping too much. Sure, they're striking to look at and absolute technological marvels. But to me, the classics have, and always be where my passion lies. I like simple, restrained, and elegant styling paired with a classy refined interior, a manual gearbox and a gloious sounding engine. That's all I need in a car. Ferrari has moved on a bit from that haha. Which is ok, as they're certainly selling more cars than ever!

A lot of old school Ferrari enthusiasts consider the F40 to be the last "real" Ferrari, since it was the last car that Enzo himself personally oversaw the development of. I like that sentiment, but I go a little bit farther and include the gorgeous 355 and 550 in that list of "real" Ferraris. Which then brings us to the feature car, this 599 by Hot Wheels. It's not my favorite Ferrari of all time, I still prefer the 550 to it. But what makes this car special and included on the "real" list, is the fact that it was the last Ferrari to have a 6-speed gated manual option. What a crying shame you can't get that anymore!!

I like how this custom turned out, I have always felt that the 599 looks amazing in dark metallic blue. What do you think?

Matchbox Volkswagen Saviero Cross Pickup

VW has a habit of making all sorts of interesting vehicles, and then selling them pretty much everywhere except the US. The Saviero Cross is a perfect example of that. Basically a cut down version of the 2 door "Gol" (which itself is a reworked Polo), it has proved to be an incredibly popular vehicle in Brazil. It is priced right around the $20k mark, which I find to be quite reasonable. Who knows, with the popularity of small pickups taking off again here in the States, VW might be able to shift a fair few of these here!

The Matchbox version made its debut in the 2011 mainline, part of the "modern golden age" that Matchbox collectors like to talk about these days. It hasn't been used a lot really, just a handful of times in the mainline and in a few multipacks. This is one of those castings that is quite nice and realistic, but always seems to come to the pegs completely overdone with crazy graphics and colors that cover up the nice model underneath.

So as usual, I decided to take one of those "loud" models, and quiet it down a bit. I think it pulls off the maroon with white wheels well! Drop a line in the comments and let me know what you think.

Breaking Bad: Jesse Pinkman's 1984 Toyota Tercel 4WD Wagon

One of my all time favorite TV shows is Breaking Bad. When it was on the air I was a complete mega fan, and still am. It was one of the most brilliantly written and directed shows I've ever seen. Those of you that haven't seen it should check it out. I know the subject matter put a lot of people off, but there really is so much more to it than drugs!

Anyways, a cool aspect of the show to me was always the vehicle selection. Whoever was in charge of that must've been a real car guy, because all the vehicles used by the characters fit them so well. As the characters changed throughout the series, their vehicles changed too and the selections were just brilliant.

So I've been trying to collect as many of those show vehicles as I can. This is the 3rd one that I have.

Jessie Pinkman was one of the main characters. Walt's partner in the drug business, and he had two main rides throughout the series. The first one was a mid-80s Chevy Monte Carlo lowrider, which Greenlight produced earlier this year. After a couple seasons, it was involved in a shootout, and I believe it was taken by the police. Then, Jesse bought this delightful red Toyota Tercel 4WD wagon. He simply seized an opportunity to get a cheap car when he needed one, but somehow the car fits him so well. So I bought an orange Majorette version and painted it red to match! Here's the 1:1..

And my version:

Hot Wheels Toyota MR2 Repaint

I'm going to be moving again soon, so that means I need to finish up and post all the projects I have going right now before they get packed up! Starting with this Toyota MR2. Just a repaint, but I think it came out pretty nice.

Lesney #53c Ford Zodiac Repaint

I tried a new color on this old Zodiac, I think it works pretty well! Could definitely see this being a color offered back in the day.

Lesney Matchbox #46c Mercedes 300SE Chassis Swap

This is kind of an odd one that I've had sitting on a dusty corner of the work bench for quite some time now. I came across a strange listing for a mint condition green 300SE body and windows, minus the interior and chassis! Only 99 cents, so I bought it. The plan was to turn it into what you see here, a one of none transitional!
Only problem was, the gold super fast version isn't always the easiest model to find, and my parts supply didn't include a good condition chassis.. So I have waited almost a year to find a good donor car on eBay, and I finally got one! So here it is:

Matchbox 1962 VW Beetle Custom

I think this one might be my favorite custom that I've done so far...

Ever since I was a little kid, I've been a fan of air-cooled VWs. Not a fanatic by any means, but I have always held that a true car enthusiast will always smile a bit when they see an old Bug drive by, and I definitely fall into that category!

But I absolutely love how this one turned out, the Matchbox 62 Beetle is my favorite VW casting anyway, and this one is just about perfect in my eyes. Exactly how I'd have a real one. Black over white interior with white walls. I tried a new technique with the wheels that I'm pretty happy with! A simple white paint pen on the regular Matchbox disc wheels. Not perfect, but it makes for a nice effect.

Matchbox Lesney #50a - Commer Pickup Truck Restoration

I'm back on the vintage Lesney train again, this time with a very cool old Commer pickup. I've been after one of these for a while, and received two into the collection recently! A bi RAOK on one of the diecast forums included one, and now this fresh restoration project.

I thought it was the silver plastic wheel version, but no its actually metal wheels that were painted over!

I tried my best to match the original tan this one came in, knowing that there were several variations on the shade. Not having a real one to compare to, I have no idea how close this tan is. But I like it regardless!

Matchbox Isuzu Amigo Custom

As you may have noticed, I enjoy collecting models of "normal" cars, ones you would see on the road on the way to work every day. Even as a little kid I was that way, one of my favorite cars being the old Matchbox Ford Mondeo casting. Of course, I have my fair share of Ferraris and Lamborghinis and such, but I have always enjoyed those "boring" cars.

And today's custom doesn't get any more boring than an Isuzu Amigo haha. I found it in a flea market scrap heap and gave it a simple repaint. It turned out pretty cool!

Hot Wheels 1969 Chevy Chevelle Custom

This one has been around for quite a while now, but I was just going through the archive on my blog and realized that I never posted it!

I like HW muscle car castings, but they're generally a bit too hot-rodded for my taste. So I like to go back and change that occasionally. This is a 1969 Chevelle that I think came out very nice.

Matchbox Ford Transit Mk3 Custom

The humidity is absolutely killing my paint here lately. Something about baking the paint messes with the clear coat for some reason. So I'm having to strip down several of my recent paint jobs. But this one came out ok! Just a simple repaint of a casting I enjoy collecting a lot, the Mk3 Transit.

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